Author Archives: nannyGOAT

Next Meeting – 25th August 2015

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 25^th August, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale. As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

The “Feature Game” will be Eketorp, where players build Viking strongholds upon the Swedish island of Öland. The winner will be the player who does Viking-type things best, including winning battles and pillaging.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor cuazzel

And talking of Vikings…

A famous Viking explorer returned home from a voyage and found his name missing from the town register. His wife insisted on complaining to the local civic official, Jeff, who apologized profusely saying, “I must have taken Leif off my census…”

Boardgames in the News: Hitler Finds Out What Game his Group Picked to Play – A Parody…

Boardgames in the News: Convention Season

Broadly speaking, June to November is boardgame convention season. These vary wildly in size, style and location. Some conventions, like Gen Con, are primarily meetings for people who like playing games, while others are limited access trade fairs, like the SpielwarenMesse. Similarly, some conventions, like BGG.Con, are focused on boardgames whereas the PAX series, include miniatures, comics and other Geek fayre. A bit like the film world where the Oscars are later in the year and earlier events tend to give a preview, the biggest boardgame conventions are in the second half of the year.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor Sjeng

In fact, the Euro-boardgame calendar is largely constructed around the German market, with the main even held in October, the Internationale Spieltage in Essen. This is a massive games fair and held in the industrial heartland of Germany and showcases everything from children’s games to the latest Euro-game. Many (or even most) manufacturers release their games at one of the big conventions like Essen, which is nicely in time for the Christmas market. Of course this only really catches the most hard-core of gamers as these freshest releases don’t make it in to the wider conciousness. However, they are perfectly timed for the next major landmark, the Spiel des Jahres. Games that make it into the nomination and recommendation lists or better still, win an award, are then perfectly placed for a new print run with the “Red Pöppel” on the cover, with plenty of time for Christmas advertising and a second outing at Essen.

– Image from graphicpolicy.com

One of the largest conventions, Gen Con has just concluded. The name Gen Con is derived from “Geneva Conventions” reflecting both its original location on the bank of Lake Geneva and it’s war gaming heritage, though it is now held in Indianapolis and includes games of all types. It will be quickly followed by PAX in Seattle in a few days time. PAX, the Penny Arcade Expo, is actually series of gaming festivals held in Seattle, Boston, Melbourne and San Antonio, run by the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic. These are shows exclusively developed for gamers and include everything from speeches from industry insiders, to tabletop game tournaments. One of the defining features of every PAX is the Omegathon which is a festival long tournament consisting of a group of randomly selected attendees competing for a grand prize.

– Image from ukgamesexpo.co.uk

Although some of these big events may be half a world away and therefore totally inaccessible without a small fortune, there are a lots of more local events that are easier to get to and often offer excellent value for money. These vary from smaller local game days (like the Oxford Meeples “Big DoG” events) to large country-wide conventions (like the UK Games Expo held annually in Birmingham).

– Image of unknown origin

Selected Local, National and International Conventions
Convention	Location	Month
OxCon	Oxford, UK	January
LeiriaCon	Leiria, Portugal	January
SpielwarenMesse	Nürnburg, Germany	February
UK Games Expo	Birmingham, UK	June
Origins	Columbus, Ohio, USA	June
Gen Con	Indianapolis, Indiana, USA	August
Penny Arcade Expo – PAX	Seattle, Washington, USA	August
Internationale Spieltage	Essen, Germany	October
BGG.Con	Dallas, Texas, USA	November

11th August 2015

It was a quiet week, so unsure of how many people we would be, we started out with what was supposed to be something quick, our “Feature Game”, Port Royal. This is a fairly light card game with elements of push your luck and and deck (or rather tableaux) building. On their turn, the active player turns over the top card from the deck: this could be a coloured Ship, or a Person. The player then has two options, they can turn over another card and add it to the row, or take one of the face up cards. They can continue turning over cards either until they choose to take one or until they go bust because they draw a Ship and the colour matches one that has already been revealed.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

When taken, the coloured Ships are immediately exchanged for money according to the number of coins shown on the card. They also have a military value which is where the People cards come in. The People cards cost money, but in general, yield both victory points and special powers. For example, Sailors and Pirates give players a military strength. If their strength matches that of a Ship, the active player may repel the Ship to avoid going bust. There are also Settlers, Captains and Priests which are used to fulfill the requirements of Expeditions. Expeditions are cards that are immediately put to one side when drawn and allow players to increase their number of victory points by trading People cards for the higher value Expedition card.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor jsper

There are other People cards too. For example, the Governor awards players two extra coins if there are five or more cards on the table, and the Admiral allows players to take more than one card. Once the active player has taken their turn, then the next player can choose to take a card from the remaining face up cards, paying the active player one coin for the privilege. Once everyone has had the chance to take a card, play passes to the next player. The game end is triggered when one player hits twelve victory points and play continues until everyone has had the same number of active player turns.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

The game has obvious elements of “push your luck card turning” like Incan Gold, dual purpose cards like Bohnanza, tableau building like 7 Wonders and Dominion, and set collecting like Splendor. However, it also has other interesting features. One of the most interesting aspects was the way that the appearance of some cards is delayed because they are tied up as currency. This meant that in our game, the Tax Man didn’t appear at all for the first half of the game and then appeared several times in quick succession. Similarly to Bohnanza, the composition of the deck also changes. In Bohnanza, the deck shrinks dramatically and as all the rare cards are turned into money their rarity increases. In Port Royal, it is the People cards that become rarer as they are played into harbours, and ships, which start off quite scarce, become increasingly common increasing the chances of going bust.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor msaari

Black and Purple started out collecting Settlers, Priests and Captain cards, hoping for an opportunity to upgrade the victory points with Expedition cards. Blue and Burgundy eschewed Expeditions and instead went for the expensive People, with powerful actions. That said, Burgundy struggled at the start, going bust in the first two rounds which left him penniless and hampered his ability to buy anything at all. Meanwhile, Green was fighting just to get the cards he wanted before someone else pinched them. Eventually, Purple took her second Expedition card and triggered the end of the game, but nobody else was close enough to threaten her position; Burgundy took second on a tie-break with Green, who both finished with nine victory points .

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

The rules booklet was not the best, however, and there were a number of questions we had that went un-answered. For example, we were unclear on how to combine the Admiral with either the Jester or the Governor. The question was, since the Admiral allows a player to take two cards, does that mean they apply the Jester/Governor special powers twice? On reflection, we felt the way we played (by a strict reading of the rules) was incorrect as it meant the combination was exceptionally powerful. Similarly, could a player repel a card if it was the first of a colour to be drawn, or is it only the second card that can be repelled? On balance, although it was a long way from being the “quick game” we expected, we all enjoyed it and felt it was a good game. Green in particular was quite taken with the effect the dual-use of the cards had on the draw deck and everyone had had thoughts on how they could have done better, but it was fitting that the one who currently has to wear an eye-patch won the pirate game!

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor tonyboydell

After some debate, we decided that we wanted to play a deeper game next which meant we were quite limited as we didn’t have many five-player games. We all enjoy Snowdonia, so since we’ve all played it before we thought we could fit it into the time we had left despite the prolonged setup time (not helped by the fact that Blue’s box contains most of two copies). Unfortunately, we got side-tracked by the possibility of playing one of the alternative scenarios. We started setting out The Daffodil Line and then we realised it only played four, so as the game is very tight anyhow we decided not to try to stretch it to five and broke the shrink-wrap on Britannia Bridge instead.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor tonyboydell

Snowdonia is a very tight, worker placement game, where players have just two workers and an optional third if they have the required train and coal. The game simulates building a railway, with players first choosing actions in turn order, then carrying out the actions in “action order”. The actions include collecting resources from the stockyard, clearing rubble from the route, building track, and building stations. There are points for most things, but one of the actions is to take contract cards which give players extra points for completing a set number of given tasks (e.g. laying three sections of track).

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor ansi

There are a number of interesting aspects to the game. Firstly, the weather. Snowdonia is well known for its rain, fog and very occasional sun, and this has an effect on the rate players can perform tasks. Secondly, the author, Tony Boydell, is known to dislike resource hoarding and has built in a mechanism to discourage it. At the start of each round, resources are drawn from a bag and placed in the stockyard. There are also a small number of white cubes in the bag – for each one that is drawn the game carries out an action. Since resources are limited, if players hoard them, the chance of drawing white cubes increases and the game speeds up, perhaps unpredictably.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor winterplum

Britannia Bridge (or Pont Britannia in Welsh) is the bridge across the Menai Strait between the the mainland of Wales and the island of Anglesey and the scenario simulates building a railway from the mainland to Holyhead on Anglesey. Thus, before players can build any track, they have to build the bridge. Uncharacteristically the weather remained quite sunny, though as it was Anglesey rather than Snowdonia, perhaps that was to be expected. This kept the dig rate up and the track-bed was cleared in record time. However, although four white cubes came out in fairly quick succession, after that, they seemed to lurk in the corners of the bag, so much so that we checked they were there twice.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor winterplum

Black and Purple both built locomotives early giving them the distinct advantage of the optional temporary labourer. Black used his to move his Surveyor collect contract cards and Blue decided to obstruct his plans by taking the some of the most lucrative (but most challenging) contracts. Everyone else looked at the short track and some of the high scoring options and decided to go for points. Blue, Green and Burgundy decided to wait until the maintenance was done before buying a train, but since the white cubes were so slow, by the time it happened they all decided the game was too far advanced for it to be worthwhile.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor tonyboydell

Although Black got an early train (The Dawn Raider) and made good use of his extra worker, he was unable to used his special ability as it depended on white cubes being drawn. Purple took the nine point train and also used the extra worker to move her surveyor. Burgundy scored a massive number of points by building bits of stations and the game sort of stalled with one track left to build and nobody very keen to build it. Green eventually got fed up and felt everyone else was picking up points faster than he was, so he decided to end the game. Blue somehow managed to scrape it all together in the last round building the last siding she needed to fulfill her thirty-one point contract for four track sections and grabbed a six point contract which she had already fulfilled. These, together with other bits and pieces this gave her a total of seventy-nine points, just two ahead of Black (who also completed three contracts) and someway clear of Burgundy who took third place with sixty-six points.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor winterplum

Although we enjoyed the variation and the Bridge undoubtedly changed the start, the different scenario didn’t change the game very much: contract cards were still very powerful and ultimately made the difference though Burgundy did incredibly well just building stations. In short, the weather and its effect on the “dig rate” together with the lack of white cubes made a much larger impact on the game than the Bridge. And that can happen in any game of Snowdonia.

– Image by BGG contributor aleacarv

Learning Outcome: The weather has a big influence on building a railway, wherever you choose to build it.

Next Meeting – 11th August 2015

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 11^th August, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale. As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Port Royal, which is a light card game where players are trying to earn as much as they can from the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

And speaking of sailors…

It was a dark, stormy, night at sea and Jeff was on his first assignment on-board ship – guard duty. The Captain stepped out taking his dog for a walk and Jeff, slightly nervous snapped to attention, made a near-perfect salute, and snapped out, “Good Evening, sir!”

The Captain, who was out for some relaxation, returned the salute and said, “Good evening Seaman, nice night, isn’t it?” Well it wasn’t a nice night, but Jeff wasn’t going to disagree with the Captain, so Jeff saluted again and replied “Yes sir!”.

The Captain continued, “You know there’s something about a stormy night that I find soothing, it’s really relaxing. Don’t you agree?” Jeff didn’t agree, but then he was just a seaman, so without hesitation, he responded, “Yes sir!”

Then the Captain, pointing at the dog said, “This is a Golden Retriever, the best type of dog to train.” The Seaman glanced at the dog, saluted yet again and said, ” Yes sir!” The Captain continued, “I got this dog for my wife.” Without thinking, Jeff replied, “Good trade, sir!”

28th July 2015

We started the evening splitting into three groups, the first of which played Machi Koro. This was the “Feature Game” a couple of months back when it received a nomination for the coveted German Game of the Year, or Spiel des Jahres Award. In essence, it is an engine building game with elements taken from The Settlers of Catan and Dominion. Like Settlers, on their turn players first roll one or two dice, which yield resources, in this case money. Players then use their money to buy cards like Dominion. Each card is numbered and provides money, sometimes when the owner rolls, sometimes when someone else does, with the amount sometimes depending on the other cards a player has.

– Image used with permission of BGG reviewer EndersGame

Players have five special buildings costing varying amounts and the winner is the first player to build all of them. Red, Yellow, Orange and Cyan started setting up while people finished eating, but Red emigrated to play the hidden traitor game, Saboteur, with Teal and Violet when they arrived. This is one of those little games that everyone always enjoys playing and plays lots of people well. With only three players, it’s possible to have one bad dwarf, or none at all which makes everyone very twitchy, and as usual, accusations abounded. After three rounds, Teal ran out the winner with five gold.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor mothertruckin

Machi Koro and Saboteur finished together to the two groups coalesced to play Colt Express. This had been the “Feature Game”, last time, however, none of this group had been available to play. Red was particularly keen to give it a go as it has a lot in common with one of her favourite games, Walk the Plank!. This style of game is sometimes refereed to as a “programming game” because players play all the cards and only after everyone has played cards, do they get to action the cards. The effect of this is semi-organised chaos as players try to make plans to take care of all eventualities, and then find that by the time they get round to carrying out the actions the situation has completely changed and is nothing like they would have predicted. This time, Orange took the $1,000 for the sharpest shooter and Cyan took the strongbox. Despite this, the best thief turned out to be Yellow who finished with $2,700 some way ahead of Cyan in second place.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor henk.rolleman

Meanwhile, everyone else had been playing the “Feature Game”, which was Last Will. This is basically the boardgame equivalent of the 1985 film “Brewster’s Millions”. The story goes that in his last will, a rich gentleman stated that all of his millions would go to the nephew who could enjoy money the most. In order to find out who that would be, each player starts with a large amount of money, in this case £70, and whoever spends it first and declares bankruptcy is the rightful heir, and therefore the winner.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor PaulGrogan

The game is played over a maximum of seven rounds each comprising three phases. First, starting with the start player, everyone chooses the characteristics of their turn for the coming round from a fixed list. These include the number of cards they will get at the start of the round, the number of “Errand Boys” they will be able to place, the number of Actions they will get and where they will go in the turn order. For example, a player may choose to go first when placing Errand Boys, but will then only get one card at the start of the round and crucially, only one Action. On the other hand, a player may choose to sacrifice position in the turn order, draw no cards, only place one Errand Boy, but receive four Actions. Since all but two cards are discarded at the end of the round and Actions must be used or lost, this decision is critical.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor Toynan

Next, in the revised turn order, players take it in turns to place one Errand Boy before placing their second if applicable. Errand Boys are important as they allow players to control the cards they are drawing as well as manipulate the housing market and increase the space on their player board. The heart of the game is the cards, however, which are played in three different ways: as a one off (white bordered cards); on a player’s board (black bordered cards) or as a modifier (slate bordered cards) which enable players to spend more when black or white bordered cards. Thus, White bordered cards are event cards which cost a combination of money and Actions to play, but once played, are discarded. Black bordered cards cost at least one Action to play, but are kept and can be activated once in each round.

– Image used with permission of BGG reviewer EndersGame

Black bordered cards come in three different types: “Expenses” which allow players to spend money; “Helpers” which additionally allow give players some sort of permanent bonus, and “Properties” which are by far the most complex cards in the game. Properties are an excellent way of spending money as they are bought for a given amount and will either depreciate every round, or will require maintenance which can be expensive. Unfortunately, players cannot declare bankruptcy if they have property and must sell them. This is where the property market comes in: one of the possible errands is to adjust the property market, so if a property is bought when the market is high and sold when it is low, this is another possible avenue for losing money.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor bswihart

At the end of the round, everyone reduces their hand to just two cards and loses any left-over actions, which puts players under a lot of pressure as it makes it very hard to plan. So the game is an unusual mixture of timing, building card combinations, strategy and tactics. Only Blue had played it before and that was a long time ago, so it took a long time to explain the rules and make sure that everyone understood how the cards worked. Even then, there were a lot of misunderstandings. Burgundy had also read the rules quite carefully as well though and mostly managed to keep everyone on track.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor Toynan

Green (as the last person to the bar and therefore the last person to buy something) went first and started out with an “Old Friend” which gave him an extra action. Burgundy went for a “lots and lots of cards which don’t cost an Action to activate” strategy while Black and Purple went into the properties market. Meanwhile, Blue’s starting cards favoured buying farms, but by the end of the first round it was becoming clear that the cards she needed weren’t there and an Events strategy would probably be better.

– Image used with permission of BGG reviewer EndersGame

Towards the end of the fourth round it was becoming obvious that Burgundy’s preparation (reading the rules) was paying dividends as he was systematically spending more than £12 per round – the amount needed to force an early finish to the game. Blue on the other hand was trying to work out why her pile of poker chips didn’t seem to be decreasing. By the end of the fifth round it was clear that Green was pressing Burgundy hard and there would only be one more round. A quick bit of maths also suggested that there had been a “banking error”. Although it would normally be in Blue’s favour, unfortunately, as this is game where players are trying to lose money, it didn’t help her. Since she had been in charge of the poker chips though, it could only have been her own fault.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game came to an end in round six when Green ran out of chips. This left him with a final total of zero and everyone else trying to make the best of the final round. Black and Purple tried selling off their properties and Blue held another couple of expensive parties, but it was Burgundy who spent £20 to finish the winner with £13 of debt. As we put the game away, we agreed that it was quite an unusual game, though quite complicated, especially on the first play. We also all felt that it was the sort of game that would benefit from the familiarity with the cards that comes from repeated plays, so it is quite likely that we’ll play it again soon.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor CellarDoor

With everyone else gone, there was just time for a few quick rounds of Love Letter. This is a game we played a lot a year or so ago, but not so much recently. The first of the so-called “micro games” it is played with just sixteen cards. Each player starts with one card and on their turn, draws a second card and then plays one of them. Each card has a value (one to eight) and an action (discard a card, swap cards with another player, compare cards, etc. etc.). The object of the game is to have the highest card when the deck has been exhausted or, be the last person remaining, which ever is soonest. For variety, we played with Green’s much loved, very battered, previously lost but recently re-found, home-made, “Hobbit” themed deck, complete with tiny gold rings. So, the first problem was remembering what all the cards did and then trying to match them to the new characters… With five, we played until the first player had two rings – everyone got one except Burgundy before Black won a second round and finished as the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Spending money is not quite as easy as you think.

Boardgames in the News: The Past, Present and Future of Z-man Games

The summer is now here which means conferences and take-overs. Last summer, Asmodée acquired Days of Wonder and then followed it with Fantasy Flight Games, Ystari Games, Asterion Press and Pearl Games. Last week, Canadian company F2Z Entertainment announced the purchase of the U.S. company Plaid Hat Games (who are responsible for Dead of Winter and Summoner Wars). Most people in the UK will have no idea who F2Z Entertainment are, however, they are the parent company of Pretzel Games, but perhaps more significantly, they also own Filosofia Éditions who in turn bought Z-Man Games four years ago.

– Image by BGG contributor mikehulsebus

Z-Man Games was created in 1999 by New Yorker, Zev Shlasinger, for the sole purpose of reviving Shadowfist, the multiplayer Collectable Card Game. From then on, the company produced a number of other American style games, including Grave Robbers from Outer Space and Ideology: The War of Ideas. The company had a much more significant impact on Euro-games, however, by introducing many German games to the United States. Z-man was one of the first companies to do this by actively engaging with the original European manufacturer and providing English translations. The first game to receive this treatment was Ursuppe (a.k.a. Primordial Soup) designed and produced by Doris & Frank. At the time, this was a very highly regarded game and the success of this reproduction quickly led to English editions of games like Santiago, Saboteur and No Thanks!.

– Image used with permission from BGG contributor samoan_jo

In 2007, Agricola was released in Germany to great acclaim, but as the cards are very text-heavy, it was essentially unplayable by non-native speakers. The problem with this game was the huge number of wooden pieces adding to the expense of producing a new edition. At the time, heavy Euro-games were perceived as a niche market and nobody was prepared to risk the capital outlay for such an expensive game. Z-Man were only a small company and were already engaged on their own projects including the production of what was to become another hit, Pandemic, and could not take the risk either. In the end, amid much controversy, Zev Shlasinger decided to gauge the interest of the community with one of the first boardgame pre-orders and the rest, as they say, is history. So the impact of Z-Man on the history of modern boardgames highly significant, and arguably, they were the forerunner of the current KickStarter Craze.

– Image by BGG contributor Simulacrum

In 2011, Z-Man Games was taken over by the French-Canadian distributor, Filosofia Éditions. With the take-over of Plaid Hat Games last week, the company now has the “cradle to grave” of the boardgame market: creation, publishing and distribution. So in that sense, the deal is clearly a sensible one. However, Z-Man Games used to be a by-word for exceptional customer service and following the take-over by Filosofia, this reputation was tarnished. Although it seems to be picking up again, this demonstrates one of the downsides of this streamlining of the market. More serious however, is the potential loss of innovation that comes from agglomeration, particularly on a large scale. That said, so far at least, all the “studios” that are part of the Asmodée group have kept their identity – the boardgamer in the pub would have no idea that Fantasy Flight Games and Days of Wonder are part of the same company. Only time will tell whether we have seen the pinnacle of the golden age of boardgames or whether there is even better still to come.

– Image from zmangames.com

Boardgames in the News: Are Games a Good Investment?

It might seem strange for a courier company to comment on the value of boardgames, however, David Jinks, the Head of Publications at ParcelHero (a UK courier comparison site), has been has been reported to have strong opinions on the subject. He explains how traditional games can be worth many thousands if the edition is right; they even have a page on their website discussing collectible games. So why are ParcelHero so interested? Well, it turns out that buying and selling vintage copies of Monopoly is big business, most of which is done on the internet using sites like eBay (who have several buyers’ guide pages on the subject). Thus, ParcelHero’s involvement is in shipping these items (though in truth it is probably mostly about publicity as there are a lot of other things that they can deliver too).

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor Zoroastro

Now, there will always be a market for vintage copies of traditional family games, but what about the more modern classics? Sadly, that early copy of The Settlers of Catan is not worth a lot yet, though of course it might be when the game has been around as long as Monopoly of course. There are modern games that sell for a small fortune however. These tend to be games where there is some combination of high demand, small print-run, popular designer and unlikely reprint. There are a number of games that fall into this category and some are not all that old. Container was released in 2007 by Valley Games Inc., and is an unusual production and shipping game – those who have played it claim there is nothing similar. The recent law suit that ensnared the reprint of Up Front means a reprint is unlikely, so copies cannot be easily be obtained for less than £100.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor duartec

Another example, is Key Market, which was designed by David Brain and released at Essen in 2010, however, only nine hundred copies were made and it sold out very quickly. R&D Games are a small company and have moved on to other things (including one of our favourite games, Keyflower), so it looks unlikely that Key Market will be reprinted in the near future. This is not the only high value game from the Key Series: a set of the earlier titles Keywood, Keydom and Keytown recently went for £1,800!

– Image by boardGOATS

It’s not just games from small companies that become rare and demand high prices. Colosseum was a Days of Wonder game with a wide release, but following an alleged dispute between the designer and publisher, it seems unlikely it will be reprinted. Witch’s Brew is in a similar boat, though it is the implementation of its central mechanism in the Spiel des Jahres winning Broom Service which is likely to prevent a reprint. The irony is that Witch’s Brew and Broom Service are quite different even though though the publisher and designer have been saying otherwise, so demand is not likely to drop, quite the opposite.

– Image used with permission of BGG reviewer EndersGame

So clearly there is money to be made from boardgames, or at least, from some boardgames. However, for every game that increases in value there are many that end up nearly worthless. Worse, timing is everything; there is nothing like the announcement of a reprint to have a sudden impact on the market of a desired game. So, before a reprint is announced the price climbs steadily as the desired item becomes increasingly rare and people continue to pay the inflated prices as “they are only going to go up”.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor kilroy_locke

When a new release is announced, everyone has to take a gamble. Many potential buyers will wait for the new edition hoping that the price will be lower and the quality will have improved in line with modern expectations. So, demand suddenly drops and sellers are left with a tricky choice: reduce the price and hope someone who hasn’t heard the news will bite, or sit tight and wait. Notably, the recent Fantasy Flight Games announcement of a third edition of Fury of Dracula has led to a sudden flood of copies on the secondary market caused by people hoping to get a sale before the price drops. Similarly, the secondary market price for Mission: Red Planet plummeted when a second edition was announced. On the other hand, waiting can turn out to be a better option in the event that the new edition is deemed inferior to the original. This is not as uncommon as one might imagine, as artwork often changes and there are frequently also “improvements” to the rules as well and changes to some components.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor tumorous

Sometimes changes are for the better, but it is not uncommon for buyers to prefer the original. For example, for the second edition of one of our favourite games, Snowdonia, the wooden workers were upgraded to plastic figurines, however, our group find the first edition tokens more tactile. Sometimes, the publicity surrounding a release of a second edition has the additional effect of reviving a market that had become stagnant due to the lack of availability. In such cases, the reprint can actually increase the price of an already expensive edition when the new version is thought of as inferior. Mostly, however, a reprint will cause the price to fall as the difference between editions is something only a connoisseur will really appreciate.

– Image by boardGOATS

So, where does this leave us? There are a number of facts that are undoubtedly true. Firstly, with the exception of the most popular games, almost all modern boardgames are perpetually “between print runs”, with sufficient stock available to supply demand. For this reason, games can suddenly become unavailable and to some degree the buyer should take the opportunity when they see it, as it may not be there for long. That said, the best games generally remain in demand and are almost always re-released in some form or another. The recent announcement by Rio Grande demonstrates that even long out of print classics like the 1992 game Elfenroads, do sometimes eventually get a re-print, albeit in a very different form.

– Images from the manufacturers

The fact that boardgames are currently a niche market means that mature games are inevitably more likely to go out of print with a corresponding increase in demand. So, good games ideally with high production values will rarely depreciate by more than 50% if bought for a good price and sold in the right place. Thus, a gamer with a mature high quality collection who looks their games well, will rarely lose a lot of money if they keep them for long enough, especially if they can chose their time to sell. Of course, spotting good games at the right price is the challenge, but very occasionally, if they have the correct edition, a gamer might make a killing.

– Image by BGG contributor theotherside

Boardgames in the News: The Rise of the Boardgame Café?

It is just over two years since Thirsty Meeples opened in Oxford as one of the first boardgame cafés in the UK. From the outset it has been very popular, building on the example set in North America where Snakes and Lattes in Toronto is often given as an example of a successful enterprise. In fact, It has been so popular that there have been rumours of expansion or developing a second premises. The way Thirsty Meeples works is very simple: customers pay a cover charge which gives them access to the shop’s very extensive library of games for a period of time. Meanwhile, the “games sommelier’s” serve drinks, snacks and help people choose something to play and teach them to play it if necessary.

– Image from Oxford University Scientific Society

Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of other boardgame cafés opening using a similar model, including the Games Hub in Edinburgh and Draughts in Hackney, London. There are also moves afoot to open a café in Cardiff called Counters, and The Dice Cup in Nottingham which is scheduled to open in October, was the subject of a recent successful KickStarter which raised over £12,000. There are rumours of people trying to open venues in Brighton and Bristol and more recently, another three crowd-funding campaigns have been launched for cafés in Exeter, Portsmouth and Preston. How successful all these ventures will be, ultimately depends on the local clientele and the offerings as well as the overheads of course. It has to be a positive trend, however, and is one that is going beyond the dedicated venues, with many more pubs and cafés offering games for customers.

– Image from draughtslondon.com

Stolen Goats

Comet, Cosmos and Chico, three pygmy kid goats, were stolen from Willow Farm, Chilton, OX11 0QU. They were last seen on 22^nd July at 9pm – the barn was broken into during the night. Lots of damage was caused, but only the goats were taken. If you know their whereabouts please contact the Animal Finders on 07886 793681 (quoting AF13-4766) or the Police.

– Image from animalfinders.co.uk